Magma and Aqua Turf
by Spark Plug x
Summary: Cassius was an Aqua Grunt who didn't care about his job and found joy in taunting a certain Team Magma Grunt. Natalie was this certain Magma Grunt, who was in love with her commander and couldn't seem to shake that annoying Team Aqua Grunt off. Can this Peter Pan and Tinkerbell make it to Neverland or will they walk the plank? (Re-done and re-uploaded)
1. Chapter 1

**First chapters are always boring**

**Please note, basically the entire story will be different. Some elements will be the same though.**

* * *

Cassius woke up lazily, blinking his eyes a few times as he stared up at his ceiling. The sounds of the ocean floated through his always opened window. The waves crashing against the shore, the sounds of the wingulls and pelippers crying out in the morning, the sounds of the city just waking up, it was music to his ears.

Cassius Rushton was a morning person, usually. Cassius was really more of a anytime person. He didn't really dislike any part of the day, or night. He didn't really dislike any day of the week either, mostly just days that he had to work.

He sat up, stretching his back, and pet his umbreon, who was also awake and stretching. "Time for work, boy." He swung his feet off of the bed and stood, stretching one more time before he shuffled around his room, grabbing pieces of clothing.

His room looked messy. He had a surfboard that was leaning against one of the blue walls of the room, and a few posters of bands his listened to hung up on other walls. His bed was unmade, and never was made. His bed was against a large white window that always stayed opened, but prevent things from coming in with a screen. His drawers had clothes hanging out of them and his desk had few books on it, but nothing more than that.

This was just part of his morning routine, or afternoon routine, or whenever he woke up and had to go to work routine. He would grab his bag, and put his uniform in it, blue pants, black and white striped shirt, matching blue bandana, then do the normal morning things, like brushing his teeth, putting on deodorant, running a brush through his messy blond hair that always fell in his face because he was too lazy to style it. He had dark blues eyes and matched the ocean and they were a little dimmed when he remembered he had to go to work.

He grabbed his bag and slug it over his shoulder, leaving the room with his pokemon. His grandpa was already at work, so he grabbed a poptart and headed out. He lived with his grandpa in Lilycove City. It was nice. The city was right next to the ocean and had tons of things to do, like going shopping at the department store or doing contests in the contest hall. Cassius' favorite thing to do was go surfing.

However, today was not a day for surfing. He got onto the beach and called out Siren, his beloved gyarados, and rode him across the salt water to the secret hideout of Team Aqua.

Team Aqua was a 'villainous' organization in Hoenn that was hell bent on creating more water for water pokemon. Their rivals, Team Magma, wanted the opposite, more land for humans. Cassius was a grunt of Team Aqua, and lately he had been hating every second of it.

He joined when he was younger, around the age of thirteen. His parents had left for Kanto three years prior for their job, leaving him to live with his grandpa in Slateport city, where he was born. Cassius' grandpa ending up getting a job in Lilycove, so the two moved there, which is where Cassius ran into Team Aqua.

To a thirteen year old, Team Aqua didn't seem that dangerous. They loved the ocean and wanted more of it, and Cassius loved the ocean and wanted more of it. It was perfect for him, and he looked very good in the uniform, he thought so, anyway.

He learned very quickly that Team Aqua wasn't easy or nice. They were dangerous and serious about their mission. They beat up anyone that got in their way and did anything to get what they wanted. It was rough and Cassius really don't know how he survived the past four years of it, probably his dumb luck had something to do with that.

He arrived at the base and entered it, going down the busy hallways to the locker room, where he changed into uniform.

"Cassius, finally." Shelly, his curly, ginger haired commander sighed when Cassius entered the room she was in after he finished changing. "I was wondering when you were going to finally get your lazy ass here."

"Such a warm welcome." He muttered, but he knew Shelly was joking with him. Shelly could be a bitch, but she was actually pretty funny sometimes.

"Have you fully recovered from yesterday's mission?" Shelly asked, referring to the mission where he had cut his leg on a lose branch. His leg was bandaged, but the medics of the team said it was nothing too bad. They cleaned it up and sent him on his way.

"Still hurts, but I've had worse." He shrugged it off, tying his bandana onto his head. He did have worse injuries, but that's what happened when you ran with Team Aqua.

"Good, I don't need you bailing out of missions." Shelly said, putting her gloved hands on her hips. "As ironic as it seems, you are one of the few grunts that won't screw up an entire mission. Given that, I've decided to assign you a partner."

"Partner?" Cassius questioned, furrowing his brows.

"She's a newbie. Get in here!" She shouted and a girl hurried in. She looked annoyed that she was yelled at and folded her arms across her chest. She was slim, with long brunette hair and violet eyes. "This is Leighton. Leighton, this is Cassius. He'll be your new partner from now on."

"Partner?" Cassius repeated. "I don't understand. Why do I need a partner? We do missions in groups." He explained, not understanding why he needed a partner.

"Sometimes you do solo missions." Shelly replied. "Anyway, she needs to be trained and Archie decided that it was best if each grunt was partnered up with a new recruit. So, take care of her, got it?"

"Yeah, understood." Cassius mumbled as Shelly went off to go give the other grunts their partners. "Nice to meet you, Leighton." He brightened up a little, realizing how moody he probably came off. "So, why did you join Team Aqua?"

"Hm." The girl mumbled with a shrug. "Nothing else to do."

Cassius just stared at her, not sure if she was being serious or not. This girl gave off a snobby vibe and didn't seem too impressed.

"Alright, mission time!" Shelly shouted and left the room. They followed and Leighton stayed right by Cassius' side, afraid she'd get lost.

"No worries, you got partnered up with the best guy." He grinned, taking a hold of her wrist. "Just listen to me and you won't get too badly injured, or arrested."

"What?" She asked, terrified.

* * *

Leighton's first mission didn't go as smoothly as Cassius hoped it would. It wasn't too complicated, but as usual, Team Magma came and got in the way. Commander Tabitha of Team Magma was annoyed, Shelly flirted with him, he called on his right hand grunt, a girl Cassius' age who had an espeon, and then Shelly called on Cassius to battle her, since he had an umbreon and had the type advantage.

"That was horrible." Leighton muttered to herself as they walked home that night. She was back into her normal clothes, something frilly and girly. "I'm going to have to take a three hour shower to get all the dirt and sweat off of me!"

"You'll get used to that." Cassius shrugged. "They literally come and crash almost all of our big missions. The same thing happens each time."

"I don't think I can handle this…"

"Welcome to Team Aqua!"

* * *

**I changed his hair. He'll get a brunet streak in it later. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Gotta get these introductions outta the way…**

* * *

Natalie sprung awake as her alarm went off. She smacked her nightside table a few times before finally hitting the clock and making the irritating beeping stop. Her espeon looked annoyed, like it usually did.

Natalie Chem wasn't much of a morning person, at all. In fact, she despised mornings with a strong passion. She was more of a night noctowl type of girl. She rolled over in bed, cuddling her pillow until her espeon decided that it was time to get up. She cried and whined until Natalie finally sat up and just looked around her room, pushing her blonde hair out of her face.

Her room was relatively…well, organized? It wasn't messy or sloppy, but it wasn't clean. She had posters and drawings of legendary pokemon all over the red walls of the bedroom, along with two bookshelves that had books and plushies of the very pokemon that were on her walls. Her drawers and closet were neat, and organized, but her desk area wasn't. It had books and notebooks piled on it, a trash pin filled with balled up notebook papers, and her desk chair had her belt with her pokeballs on it hanging off the back.

She got up and left her room to go to the bathroom to get ready for the day. She was currently at her father's house, and she could hear him in the kitchen, making breakfast. After brushing her hair and washing her face, she went to change in her room, packed her bag with her uniform, a black dress and a red hood with matching arm and leg warmers, and put her belt on before heading out into the living area.

"Morning." He dad greeted. Her father was a scientist that worked for Team Magma, it was how Natalie got in. Her mother knew that he worked for Team Magma, it was the reason that the two divorced, but she was unaware that her daughter was part of the team as well.

Natalie had been part of Team Magma since she was thirteen and was seventeen now. She had been cornered by Team Aqua grunts just north of Mauville City, the place where she was born and raised and lived currently. Team Magma had come to her rescue and after finding out her father was Dr. Paul, they brought her back to the base and the rest was history.

She finished her breakfast and left for work, eager to see her commander. Commander Tabitha was a large reason for her wanting to join. She didn't really believe in Team Magma's goal, she thought it was a little, well, stupid, but she would follow her commander anywhere. He was strong, snarky, and a great leader. Natalie had been crushing on him since the day she joined, though she didn't think he noticed.

She made it to the base hidden away in the mountain and changed into her uniform swiftly.

"Nate, there you are." Tabitha said once he saw the girl. He looked her over once, making sure she was wearing the uniform properly, something he had done every day since she joined. She had a habit, mostly when she was younger, of having something wrong with her uniform.

"Heya, Commandeerrr." She grinned at him as he sighed. The girl could be such a fool at times, he didn't know why he made her his right hand grunt. "What are we doing today?"

"I'm going on a mission." He said and walked past her. Right on cue, a loud whine emitted from the girl. She turned around and went after the man, grabbing hold onto his cape. "Before you ask, no, you are not coming."

"B-But why?" She asked, furrowing her brows. She always went on missions with Tabitha, always. She was clingy and whiney, but she was only this way with Tabitha.

"Because I said so." He argued and she rolled her eyes, not impressed with his answer.

"That is probably the worst excuse I've ever heard." She muttered, annoyed with her commander. "Fine, whatever." She folded her arms across her chest. "I'm going to go see what's up with Brodie." She turned and walked back down the hallway, towards Brodie's room.

Brodie was the weirdest guy she had ever met. He had weird purple hair with different streaks of color, weird facepaint, and, the ability to be anyone. He was so good at dressing up and acting as other people, it was a little ridiculous. She heard Tabitha call after her, but she pretended that she didn't hear him, and turned down another hallway. She knocked on the door and waited until Brodie opened it.

"Aw, Tabs ignoring you?" He asked, letting her into his room and shutting the door behind her. She glared at him and plopped down on his bed.

"No, but he won't let me go on the mission he has planned for today, probably because we ran into Team Aqua last night and they messed everything up." She muttered, thinking back to the mission. As usual, she had to battle the boy with the umbreon, which is what always happened, while their commanders bickered.

"So now you're ignoring him?" Brodie asked, sitting down on his desk chair.

"No…." Nate trailed off, eyeing Brodie. "I just told him I was coming to see you since I wasn't going on the mission."

"So you are ignoring him now." Brodie chuckled. "You two need to stop doing this. You argue, then he ignores you or something like that, so you ignore him until he can't take it anymore."

"Well he's just being stupid." She muttered, falling back onto the purple haired male's bed. "He's such a knucklehead sometimes."

"But you still love him anyway." Brodie said and she sighed. He was right about that. "You are commander's pet and always will be."

"Urg, I hate that nickname." She growled. She kicked anyone's ass who dared call her that!

"You earned it." He told her, poking her knees. "Always following him around like a lost poochyena since the day you joined."

"I do not." Nate argued, but, she knew she did. "Whatever, I'm going to go train." She huffed, sitting up and glaring at Brodie, before she stood and marched out of his room, hearing him laugh behind her.

* * *

**Next chapters will be longer, I promise**


	3. Chapter 3

**Surprisingly, I don't have every mission of Team Magma and Aqua memorized so I will use my imagination for the most part.**

**Feels weird to be re-writing this.**

**Yeah and most likely I will be combining Nate and Cassius together instead of them getting separate chapters.**

* * *

Cassius watched as Leighton battled against another grunt in the gym. She wasn't bad, but he could tell that battling was not her strong suit. Her piplup was level 15, at best.

Nothing was her strong suit, except sassing Cassius off.

She was horrible at running the course, which was just running, jumping over some hurdles, and lifting a weight or two. She didn't even run, she walked. She walked around the hurdles, stared at the weights before saying 'no' and walking away. She was hopeless.

"Why do you look so hopeless? I won." Leighton said as she walked over to Cassius, who just stared at her. The brunette girl just looked at him back before the blond male stood up.

"Why did you join?" Cassius asked her bluntly, rubbing his face when she shrugged.

"I was boreddddd." She smiled and Cassius just shook his head, having his work cut out for him. He was going to look after his own ass, and hers, on missions from now on.

"You aren't anymore." Shelly said, interrupting the two. "We've got to head to Meteor Falls right away."

"We have to go on a mission? I've been training all day and I'm tired." Leighton complained, but Shelly just shot her a look before she walked off. Cassius grabbed Leighton's arm and pulled her along with him, like he seemed to do a lot lately.

"Leighton, she doesn't care. You're a grunt." Cassius explained as they followed the ginger commander down the hallway. "She's higher in the ranks so you listen to her. Even though I'm just a grunt, I'm her second hand, so I rank above you, meaning you listen to me too."

"I have to listen to the both of you?" She questioned. She hated taking orders.

"No." Cassius said, more hushed now so Shelly wouldn't here. "You listen to me. I've got your wellbeing in mind, Shelly has getting the job done in mind."

* * *

Meteor Falls was nestled up in the mountains just west of Fallarbor Town and North of Rustburo City. It was a large cave and one could get lost very easily in it, which is way Cassius insisted to Leighton that she stay as close as possible. The last thing he needed was her getting lost and him having to try and find her.

The mission seemed simple enough. Get in there and snag a meteorite from Professor Cozmo. The name of the professor made Cassius laugh, because really, Professor Cozmo? Who studied space? He was destined for that job with that name.

All their missions seemed simple though, and they never were. Shelly had the meteorite in her hands and had the geeks in lab coats shaking in their boats when out of nowhere, a mightyena ran up and snagged the meteorite out of her hands. "Go and get it!" She ordered, screaming. Cassius took off running after it, Leighton right behind him with the others.

The mightyena had to belong to Team Magma with the way it was trying to throw them off. It turned sharp around corners and went through narrow passage ways. It also ran past numerous Magma grunts, which was the reason why Cassius was now chasing it alone. The others went off to battle the grunts they passed until he was the only one left. He cursed them, and the pokemon, because he was getting tired and knew he couldn't keep up.

The pokemon took a sharp right turn and he missed it, resulting in him running into someone. "Oh, shit, I'm sorry." Cassius apologized to whoever he ran into to.

"I'm sorry." A female voice said and then he heard a groan. The cave was dim, but he could make out the outline of the girl's Magma hood.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine, maybe you should watch where you're going, you stupid Aqua Grunt!" The girl hissed, obviously pissed at him. "Dammit." She looked around as Cassius dusted himself off. "Where the hell are we?"

"I don't know, I was chasing that damn mightyena and I ran into you." Cassius told her as she began to walk one direction. He ran after her, not wanting to be stuck alone. "Hey, wait, I recognize you! You're Tabitha's grunt, right? The one that's always with him on missions, right? The one with the espeon!" He asked, seeing her blonde hair.

"None of your business. Oh, wait, you're Shelly's grunt, aren't you? How great." Her voice was flat when she said this.

"I'm Cassius." He introduced himself, more excited than the girl was. He'd seen her on almost every mission that Team Magma had interrupted. She was a fierce opponent, and Cassius always enjoyed battling with her. If he wasn't so disinterested in Team Aqua, he would probably be trying to attack her for information or whatever, but he didn't care too much, and she was kinda cute. She looked at him like he was insane and continued walking. "I'm going to keep following you, so we might as well make it pleasurable. Don't be a sour apple, tell me your name."

"Natalie, if you insist. I don't really care to make this little 'walk' pleasurable at all." She spat out, but Cassius let it roll off his shoulders. Nate took a sharp left, but Cassius was right behind her.

"I like your name, Natalie. It's pretty." He started up again, refusing to walk in silence. "So, other than Team Magma, what are your hobbies? I like to surf and swim. That's expected of me though, right? It's pretty stereotypical that I, a Team Aqua grunt, enjoy water activities. I bet you hate them."

"I do."

"Called it." Cassius nodded his head and smiled, though the girl couldn't see it. The passage way they were walking through opened up, so Cassius sped up so he could walk beside her instead of behind her. He had expected Team Magma grunts to not be so….friendly, especially Tabitha's right hand grunt.

"Why are you still talking to me?" Natalie asked, looking at him from the corners of her eyes.

"Nothing else to do." He shrugged and took his bandana off his head and tied it around his wrist. "Besides, I wanna get to know you. We see each other all the time but we never really speak."

"That's because we're on opposing sides." She replied, clearly frustrated.

"Such a Romeo and Juliet feeling, isn't it? Except we're not 'in love' and I'm pretty sure no one will die." Cassius continued. "Well, I might die, that's always up in the air. I'm sure though that I won't commit suicide."

"Please stop talking." Natalie growled, wondering if slamming her skull into the rocky walls would be less painful than this conversation.

"Why? C'mon Natalie, lighten up a little bit. Look, I don't really care if you get the meteorite or not, I was just trying to get it so Shelly won't bitch me out later." Cassius explained. He knew the girl was confused as to why he was being friendly.

"You should care. You are her right hand grunt." Natalie told him, turning to look at him. His blue eyes looked back at her and she turned to face forward. "Not that I did not enjoy our chat, but I have business to attend to." She announced once they got to an opening in the cave that led them outside, just above the entrance. She ran off with ease over the rocks and disappeared before Cassius could say anything.

"There you are!" Leighton shouted from below. She looked relieved that he was back. He slid down the side of the cave and landed in front of her.

"Where the hell did you go? You didn't get the meteorite, did you?" Shelly asked, running up to the two.

"I was chasing that pokemon and got lost in the cave. Glad you know you're worried about my safety." He said flatly to Shelly who rolled her eyes and made the call to head back to the base. They all piled into the helicopter, tired.

"I was worried when I didn't see you with the rest of us." Leighton said, then frowned. "How dare you just leave me with them."

"Leave you in the safety of our teammates? I'm just awful." He replied sarcastically. "I didn't tell you to stay and fight Team Magma." Which now that he thought about it, he was pretty happy she stayed to fight. If she was with him, there was no way he would've gotten to chat with Natalie.

"That's not what I meant." She grumbled, pinching his arm. "Don't just disappear like that. Shelly started yelling at me asking where you were and why didn't we stick together."

"She should be used to it, I always disappear on missions. I come back in one piece, barely." He muttered the last part.

* * *

Natalie stared down the grunts that were on her team. They were training as she watched. She had just gotten back from the mission at Meteor Falls. Tabitha was mad at her because she had disappeared in the cave and he had no clue where she went.

She returned after the rest of the group did, and explained to Tabitha that she had taken a wrong turn and was stuck trying to navigate through the cave by herself.

She knew to be careful, she was on her toes the entire time she was with the Aqua grunt. He was friendly and that was strange. He should've been arguing and fighting her, not striking up conversations and telling her that her name was pretty! She kept her guard up though. His friendlies could've been a trick and Nate refused to be fooled by him. Team Aqua was evil, they had attacked her when she was younger and couldn't defend herself properly. She didn't trust any of them, especially not Shelly's right hand grunt. Cassius had told her he didn't really care about Team Aqua, and his blue eyes didn't seem to be lying, but Nate refused to be played.

"Natalie." A gruff voice next to her said, making her jump. "Relax."

"You startled me." Nate said to Tabitha, who took a seat next to her.

"I could tell. I was calling your name, guess you got lost up in there again." He pointed to her head. "I don't see how you get lost when it's so empty." He teased her and she frowned, smacking his finger away. "I'm just teasing with you."

"You're the one that shouldn't get lost in thought." She replied, rolling her eyes.

"I know you're mad that I lectured you earlier, but that aqua grunt could've hurt you. It was just you and him deep in that cave." Tabitha said, hoping Natalie would understand.

"I was fineeeeee." Nate grumbled, shrugging it off.

"Yeah, but what if you weren't? I don't want him taking advantage of you." Tabitha continued as someone sat down behind them. Tabitha always got onto her for stuff like that. Just because she was a little short (only 5"2!) and she was a girl. Yet, she was the strongest grunt on his team and her blaziken could kick the shit out of anything!

"No one is going to take advantage of me, Tabitha. I can take care of myself." She muttered, frowning at him.

"Pretty sure you said something along those lines when I first met you." Tabitha recalled, thinking back to the first time they met. "It's hard to believe it's been four years."

"Please don't remind me." She grumbled, embarrassed.

"You haven't changed one bit. You still follow me around and harass me." Tabitha chuckled and she blushed, looking away.

"Harass you? You're the one who harasses me!" She exclaimed, biting her lip and glaring at him.

"I dunno, I remember you when you were shorter, if possible, and you'd follow me around all day. So cute! What happened?" Tabitha teased again. "You grew up so fast. Now you're just a little bit taller and you still follow me around."

"I'm heading home. You're getting sappy on me." She playfully punched his shoulders and climbed off the bleachers. She headed to the locker room, changing into her normal outfit and strapped her go go goggles around her neck.

She took the cable car down Mt. Chimney and headed towards the desert. She pulled her go go goggles over her eyes to protect them from the sand that seemed to always be blowing in the desert. That's the only thing she hated about the desert, the constant blowing wind. She hadn't even gotten to go into the desert until last year when he mother gave her the go go goggles as a birthday present.

The desert didn't appeal to too many, but Nate loved it. It had great archaeological sites for her to explore and not a lot of people were there. It was quiet, despite the raging sandstorm, and people left her alone.

"Hey!" A voice called out and Nate inwardly, and probably outwardly, groaned. She turned towards the person, who was hiding behind some rocks with another person. She walked over to them and saw that neither of them looked prepared to be in the desert.

"You guys aren't from around here, are you?" She asked, feeling a little sorry for the two boys. One was blond, with blue and black streaks of hair near his face. His hair was spiked up like a faux Mohawk style and his bangs were blowing in his face. The other one had black hair that went past his ears. He had green eyes that were squinting to look at her.

"You could tell, huh?" He asked. "Yeah, this sandstorm wasn't raging when we came in here earlier, so we figured it was safe."

"We figured wrong!" The blond one exclaimed in a whiny manner.

Nate was only mean in Team Magma and she wasn't going to leave the two males here. "Follow me." She said and the blond boy held onto the black haired male, who held onto Nate's bag she had. She led them out of the desert in no time at all.

"Thank you." The black haired male said, shaking the sand off of him. "I'm Jordan and this is Mikhail. We're from Kanto."

"Natalie, but call me Nate. I grew up around here. You gotta be careful in the desert. You should buy some go go goggles down in Mauville City before you decide to venture out into the desert again." She advised, shaking the sand off of herself.

"I'm never going back in there." Mikhail muttered and Jordan rolled his eyes.

"Thank you again, Nate." Jordan repeated before the two went South towards Mauville City, leaving Nate to go explore the desert once more.

This was the only alone time she really ever got when she was living with her mother for the week. Her mother was very…..loving. Her father was more like her, and the two could spend the whole week together and barely speak and be perfectly fine. It helped that her father knew she worked for Team Magma. Her mother didn't.

"Ringggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg!" Her phone cried and Nate sighed when she saw the caller I.D.

"Hey mom." She greeted, knowing her short time in the desert was up.

* * *

**It's going to get far more action-y, I promise**


	4. Chapter 4

**A lot of people have asked me why I'm re-doing Magma and Aqua Turf, and the answer is pretty simple. My characters have developed a lot since I first came out with the original version of this story. I mostly wanted to re-do the last few chapters, but then I decided to just re-do the whole thing because there were a lot of things I wanted to change. This story will follow the same path as the last one, it'll just have some changes.**

**This chapter is probably going to seem super boring to you all and I apologize.**

* * *

Cassius felt the waves hit his face as he paddled out into the ocean. It was a beautiful day off for him and it was much needed. His muscles ached from work, but that didn't stop him from riding every wave that he could.

"There he is!" Leighton exclaimed, catching sight of Cassius out on the ocean. Mikhail and Jordan stood behind her, neither very impressed. "CASSIUS!" She screamed and the male surprisingly heard her. He paddled back and ran out of the water with his board under his arm.

"Yo." He greeted, approaching the trio. He shook some water out of his hair and smiled at them. "These your friends?"

"Yeah, this is my boyfriend, Jordan." She said, directing his attention to the black haired male. "And Mikhail!" He looked to the blond male with black and blue streaks in his hair, who just crossed his arms.

"Nice to meet ya both, I'm Cassius." He introduced himself, and neither of them were impressed, but Jordan extended his hand and the two shook hands.

"Thanks for keeping Leighton out of trouble while we're away." He said, making Cassius chuckle.

"Eh, she'll end up getting me killed someday." Cassius joked and Leighton pouted at both males. Mikhail stayed silent and it was obvious to Cassius that he was in a foul mood. "You don't like the beach or somethin'?" He asked Mikhail, who pulled himself further back into his hoodie. "I'll take that as a no."

"Mikhail likes to train and battle with his pokemon." Leighton told Cassius. It was obvious to Cassius that Mikhail didn't like him at all, and he was starting to get the feeling that he didn't like Leighton too much either.

"Oh! Then how about a battle?" Cassius offered, trying to get on Mikhail's good side. He was a cute guy, but it was hard to tell when he was practically hiding in his hoodie. "If not me, there's tons of people on the beach who'd love to battle, especially the kids in the inner tubes." He muttered as a kid with a bright yellow inner tube ran by, almost running into Cassius' surfboard.

"All you probably have is water pokemon, so no thanks." Mikhail mumbled and Cassius could barely hear him over the waves.

"Nah, I only got one water type, and it was my first pokemon."

"Me too! Well, my first pokemon is a water type. Almost all my pokemon are water types, actually." Leighton muttered, glancing down at the few pokeballs she had. "We're not a very pokemon diverse group. Jordan has psychic, I have water, and Mikhail has fire."

"I knew it." Cassius replied, grinning. "Kinda easy to spot those who prefer fire types." He thought back to Natalie, she probably preferred fire types too. "All my pokemon were given to me, so I don't really have a favorite type." He walked over to his spot on the beach, which really just had his bag, a towel, and his umbreon stretched out on the towel.

"What was your first pokemon?" Leighton asked, curious.

"Oh, a magikarp." Cassius replied, setting his board down and drying himself off with the towel.

"I didn't realize your parents hated you." Jordan commented, making Cassius laugh.

"It was from my gramps actually, umbreon was from my parents, well, he was an eevee at first. Dude, I love Siren to pieces. Magikarps are cool pokemon."

"I think you mean useless." Mikhail muttered, wondering why Leighton befriended such an idiot. "Hey, Jordan, I wanna get some ice cream! Come on with me so I don't get lost." Mikhail said, slightly whining.

"Yeah, get him some ice cream. I don't know how he's not dying of a heat stroke yet." Leighton murmured. The two boys left and Leighton sighed, plopping down onto the sand next to Cassius' umbreon. "He hates me."

"Who?" Cassius asked, sitting down next to his partner. "Jordan? Isn't he your boyfriend?"

"No, not Jordan. Mikhail. Mikhail hates me." Leighton whined, her hands covering her face. "I think he used to have a crush on Jordan and is mad at me because I'm dating him. He and I haven't always gotten along since I joined their little group a few months ago, but I've been trying really hard to make him like me since I'm dating Jordan now."

"If it makes you feel any better, he hates me too." Cassius told her, patting her back. "It'll be fine, ya just gotta give him some time. He's a real cutie, even if he's a bit of a sourpuss."

"I'm going to try. You think he's cute?" Leighton questioned.

"I think everyone is cute." Cassius shrugged. "Guys and gals are all attractive to me, but yeah, Mikhail is pretty adorable. I'd totally hit that up if he didn't act like he wanted to kill me."

"I think you two could get along! I know he didn't make the greatest impression, but it'd mean a lot to be if you tried to befriend him." Leighton pleaded and Cassius couldn't really say no to her.

"Fine, but you gotta work extra hard at work….do they know you're in Team Aqua?" Cassius questioned.

"Yeah, but I don't think they know what Team Aqua is exactly." Leighton rolled her eyes.

"It'll be fine, I'll protect you so you won't come home bruised and beaten. You wanna meet Siren?" Cassius hopped up, grabbing a pokeball from his bag.

"Your magikarp? Sure." Leighton didn't even try to hide the disinterest in her tone, but got up and let Cassius drag her towards the ocean.

"Okay, come on out Siren!" He called, throwing the pokeball.

"W-What the hell Cassius?!" Leighton exclaimed as a gyarados appeared in the water. It cried out before lowering its head, nudging Cassius affectionately.

"What the fuck is this?" Mikhail questioned as the two boys approached them with their ice cream.

"Siren!" Cassius said turning to the pokemon and scratching the pokemon's large chin. Leighton stepped back, frightened. She had reason too. Gyarados were not friendly pokemon. They were known to go on rampages and destroy cities, but the one in front of them was happily nudging its trainer, who was laughing and scratching its chin in return.

"You…obvious raised it with love…" Jordan murmured, not expecting this.

* * *

Natalie never knew what to do with herself on her days off. She didn't have any friends. She didn't really have any hobbies, except legendary pokemon. However, she didn't really feel like researching any of them today. Her mother was at work, which was probably a good thing because if the woman was home, she'd drag Nate out to the contest hall in Verdanturf Town and Nate was not into that.

Her mother loved things like that though, and she was hoping Natalie would give it a try. Natalie didn't have time to do it, nor the real want to do it. Her mother didn't know about her job and she didn't plan to tell her.

She decided that being at home was just too boring, so she left her mother's house in Mauville City with her espeon at her feet. The two wandered around the city, looking in the windows of shops and just wandering around aimlessly. Natalie slowed down when she saw a girl, around her age with dirty blonde hair in a low ponytail, looking around like she was lost or something. The girl held her wallet in her hands and was obviously distressed.

Natalie knew she was going to regret this, but she approached the girl. "You need help with something?"

"Oh, uh, well…" The girl seemed surprised that someone had stopped to speak to her. "Could you direct me towards the police station? It seems someone stole my wallet. I mean, I have my wallet, I found it, but all my money is gone."

"That sucks." Nate muttered, feeling a little sorry for the girl. She obviously wasn't from around here.

"I'm Lily, by the way. I'm from Snowpoint City in Sinnoh." Lily introduced herself.

"Wow, you're really far from home." Nate said, feeling even sorrier for the girl. "I'm Natalie, just call me Nate." She started to walk, leading the girl towards the police station. Natalie wasn't a huge fan of the police, they often tried to arrest her and her coworkers.

"It's nice to meet you Nate! Thank you so much for helping me out!" Lily exclaimed, hurrying after Nate. "I just left my parents in Kanto and of course this would happen to me." She rambled and Nate thought of Cassius, who had difficulty shutting up as well. "I dunno what I'm going to do. I figured I'd just head home or back to my parents, but how am I supposed to get there without any money? Plus, I really don't want my parents or brother finding out this happened. I might just go and find some people to battle and try to make money that way…."

"There's no way you'd make enough money in one day to get to Kanto or Sinnoh." Nate said and Lily seemed to quieten down as she thought of what she'd do.

"I could just stay at the pokemon center! But Nurse Joy told me this morning that all the rooms are already booked because of some contest event…..I could still sleep on the sofa there…or maybe I'll try camping out?" Lily questioned, trying to come up with good ideas.

Nate was really going to regret this.

"Lily, do you just wanna stay with me?" She asked, stopping and turning to face the girl. Her mother wouldn't mind Lily, at all, she had a feeling the two would get along wonderfully. Despite being in Team Magma, Nate wasn't a bad person.

"R-Really?" Lily asked, surprised by the girl's offer. "Are you sure? I don't wanna be a burden! Plus, you just met me! What if I was a crazy person?"

"I think I could handle it." Nate glanced down at her espeon, who just looked back at its trainer. "My mom won't mind and we have an extra room." She headed back towards her mother's house now and Lily stayed close behind her. She really didn't know why she was doing this and she knew she'd regret it. It was just so unlike her that it frightened her a bit.

"Ah, Natalie! I was just about to call you to see where you were!" Her mother exclaimed the second Nate opened the door. "I got off work early so I figured we'd go grab some lunch and go down to Slateport City to do some shopping in the market."

"Hey mom. I brought a friend home." She used the term 'friend' hoping to make it sound better when she asked her if Lily could stay with them.

"A friend?!" Her mother poked her head out of the kitchen and hurried into the hallway where Lily and Nate were now standing. "Hello hello! I'm Natalie's mother, please call me Ms. Trish! It's so lovely to meet one of Natalie's friends!"

"Hello! I'm Lily!" Lily replied, surprised at the friendliness of the woman. "It's very nice to meet you too!"

"Mom, Lily had her wallet stolen. She found it, but all her money was gone, so I offered the guest room to her." Nate explained.

"That's terrible! Of course you can stay with us, sweetie! You can stay as long as you'd like." Ms. Trish offered. "Now, let me go grab my purse and we can all head down to Slate Port City!" She disappeared down the hallway and into the kitchen once more.

"Thank you so much, again, Nate." Lily thanked her once more, grabbing a hold of one of Nate's hands. She squeezed it tightly, incredibly grateful.

"I couldn't just leave you out there." Nate shrugged as Lily released her hand.

Nate was right about her mother and Lily. The two got along extremely well. Nate and her mother always had a distance between them, mostly because of Nate's job. She kept it hidden from her mother because Team Magma was the very reason why her parents divorced one another when she was eight. Since then, she had been passed back and forth between them every week. It wasn't too bad, especially since they lived only ten minutes away from one another.

Despite them being divorced, her mother and father got along just fine. They were civil and could spend holidays with each other for Natalie's sake. They acted more as friends towards one another than a divorced couple.

"Heyyyyy! Let's double battle!" A child yelled at Lily when she locked eyes with him. She was startled by this as his twin pointed at her, saying the same thing his brother had just said.

"Fine then, let's battle." Nate interjected, joining Lily's side against the two children. The twins sent out their pokemon, a zizagoon and a poochyena. Nate wasn't worried at all about losing and called out her loyal espeon, as Lily called out her leafeon.

It really wasn't a fair fight at all, but the kids had it coming. Within seconds their pokemon were knocked out and they were running away crying with their injured pokemon.

"Thanks for joining me. I really don't battle much, and I hate to battle kids. I feel so bad when I beat them." Lily returned her leafeon and Nate returned her espeon, shrugging.

"I don't feel bad about it. Maybe that'll teach them not to challenge anyone who looks at them." Nate muttered. Her mother was off in the market, having too much fun shopping. Nate and Lily had gone off towards the beach for a shopping break.

"You're really strange, you know that?" Lily told Nate, looking at her. "I mean, you met me today and you're letting me stay with you and hang out with you and your mom, but you're not the overly friendly and helpful type, I can tell. This is really out of your normal zone."

"Something wrong with that?" Nate asked, narrowing her eyes at Lily. She had spent too long dealing with smart mouthed grunts.

"No no no! Nothing wrong with it at all, I'm just pointing that out!" Lily exclaimed, frightened by Nate's expression.


End file.
